Greetings list members, i just cannot accept this; > 23 kg of meat in a suitcase (suitcase bomb...TSS) > The data do not provide a species of origin code for these > products, therefore they may not contain any ruminant product. what kind of statement is this? how stupid do they think we are? it could also very well mean that _all_ of it was ruminant based products ! Terry S. Singeltary Sr., Bacliff, Texas USA

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Department of Transportation and APHIS-PPQ Agricultural Quarantine Inspection data base. What is the level of passenger traffic arriving in the United States from Japan? Approximately 6.84 million passengers on 29,826 direct flights from Japan arrived at US airports in fiscal year 2000. An undetermined number of passengers from Japan arrived in the US via indirect flights. Under APHIS-PPQ's agriculture quarantine inspection monitoring, 801 air passengers from Japan were sampled for items of agricultural interest in fiscal year 2000. Of these 801 passengers, 10 carried meat (non-pork) items that could potentially harbor the pathogen(s) that cause BSE; most passengers carried an average of 1.7 kilograms of meat. None of these passengers from whom meat items were confiscated reported plans to visit or work on a ranch or farm during their visit to the US. Source: US Department of Transportation, and APHIS-PPQ Agricultural Quarantine Inspection data base http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ceah/cei/bse_japan0901.htm

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more on non-species coding system and TSEs and potential 'suitcase bombs';

let me kick a madcow around here a bit. on the imports from Poland and the infamous USA 'non-species' coding system. the USDA/APHIS states;

> During the past four years (1998 - 2001), US imports from

> Poland included non-species specific animal products

> used in animal feeds and non-species specific sausage and offal

> products (Table 3). Given US restrictions on ruminant product

> imports, these US imports should not have contained ruminant

> material.

NOW, if you read Polands GBR risk assessment and opinion on BSE, especially _cross-contamination_, it states;

ANNEX 1 Poland - Summary of the GBR-Assessment, February 2001 EXTERNAL CHALLENGE STABILITY INTERACTION OF EXTERNAL CHALLENGE AND STABILITY The very high to extremely high external challenge met a very unstable system and could have led to contamination of domestic cattle in Poland from 1987 onwards. This internal challenge again met the still very unstable system and increased over time. The continuing very high external challenge supported this development. Not OK MBM-ban since 1997, but no feed controls. Reasonably OK Heat treatment equivalent to 133°C / 20min / 3 bar standards, but no evidence provided on compliance. Not OK. No SRM-ban, SRM are rendered and included in cattle feed. BSE surveillance: Not sufficient before 2001. Cross-contamination: Lines for ruminant and non-ruminant feed in feed-mills only separated in time and no analytical controls carried out. Likely present since 1987 and growing. see full text and ANNEX 1 at; http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sc/ssc/out185_en.pdf so in my humble opinion, the statement by the USDA/APHIS that ''these US imports _should_ not have contained ruminant materials, is a joke. a sad joke indeed. * POLAND BSE GBR RISK ASSESSMENT